In the seventh century, Alemanni first settled in the modern municipal area, pushing out the Celts into the surrounding valleys.

The first documented reference to the town, in the phrase inter lacus Madon, was on 8 November 1133 in a letter from Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor.

Between 1300 and 1310 Interlaken Monastery acquired the village and bailiwick from other local nobles.

In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Bernese Oberland.

Matten joined many other villages and the Monastery in an unsuccessful rebellion against the new faith.

As tourism to the Bernese Oberland increased in the course of the nineteenth century, Matten profited, and the large hotels Jungfraublick (1863) and Mattenhof (1870) were built.

The tourist industry reached its peak around 1910, then began to decline during the two World Wars and the Great Depression.

Today, although there is still a tarmac strip, this area no longer serves a military purpose and it is now used for cattle grazing.

Erich von Däniken's Mystery Park was also built on the former airbase land.

Matten is a native field name, going back to the Old High German matta- ("meadow").

On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.

[7] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Vert a Bar enbatteled Argent between three Mullets Or.

[11] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (3,315 or 90.3%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (84 or 2.3%) and Serbo-Croatian is the third (51 or 1.4%).

The executive is the municipal council of seven members; in the case of tied votes the mayor becomes the tie-breaker.

[15] Because of the growth of the municipalities Unterseen, Interlaken, and Matten into one another, their economies have also become tightly interconnected.

With the closing of the airbase, Matten and the Bödeli region as a whole lost many valuable jobs.

In the tertiary sector; 205 or 31.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 46 or 7.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 116 or 17.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 17 or 2.6% were in the information industry, 103 or 15.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 44 or 6.7% were in education and 52 or 7.9% were in health care.

[11] From the 2000 census[update], 565 or 15.4% were Roman Catholic, while 2,425 or 66.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.

[20] During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 348 students attending classes in Matten bei Interlaken.